STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2343

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2334

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, to which was referred S.B. No. 2334 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to repeal the exemption from civil service for the positions of First and Second Deputy Sheriff and also to require that the Deputy Director for law enforcement and the Sheriff be graduates of a law enforcement academy.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by one individual.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety.

     Your Committee finds that the Sheriff Division, within the Department of Public Safety, has an insufficient number of upper management positions within the Division itself.  Repealing the exemptions from civil service for the First and Second Deputy Sheriffs will enable the Division to adequately control its law enforcement organization.

     Your Committee further finds that requiring the Deputy Director for law enforcement and the Sheriff to be graduates of a law enforcement academy is an appropriate experiential and educational requirement to promote effective law enforcement management.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by permitting any Deputy Director for law enforcement or Sheriff that assumes that respective position prior to the effective date of this measure to remain at that respective position even if they were not previously a graduate of a law enforcement academy.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2334, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2334, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair